My father-in-law's nursing home did an Easter version of this, with grass, eggs, and candy, and I thought, "What a great idea with so many possibilities!!" So I turned it into an end-of-year teacher gift for my kids' teachers. I'll be honest, it took a little longer than I anticipated (most things do), but it was still well worth the effort.
I got the bucket, flowers, floral foam, and scrapbook paper (for the giftcard holder in the middle) from Hobby Lobby. Glued a chunk of floral foam in the bottom of the bucket. Then came the labor-intensive part. The flowers I got were part of a "bunch", so I had to cut them apart (or bend, in my case, since I don't have any wire cutters). Then, in order for them to stick in the floral foam better, I stripped the plastic from the wire on the bottom 2 inches or so on each flower. Again, no wire tools so I used my teeth. Yes, I did.
I stuck the flowers into the foam and arranged them to my liking. The good news is, this is supposed to look a little random and haphazard, so there aren't many ways to mess it up. Then I glued the candy to bamboo skewers and randomly placed them among the flowers. Lastly, I cut a piece of scrapbook paper to fit the giftcard, taped it into the shape of an envelope, inserted the gift card, sealed it with tape and glued on a button for extra cuteness. Glued the envelope to another skewer, placed it in the middle, and DONE!
My favorite thing about it, aside from the cuteness, is that everything can be used or reused. The candy, well, that's obvious. The flowers can be taped to pens or pencils, and the bucket can be used to hold a plant, desk supplies, pencils, whatever. And every time I've asked a teacher/friend what teachers like for tokens of appreciation, gift cards are usually the first thing mentioned. So that's what this is, honestly, a really elaborate gift card holder.
